Friday, October 31, 2008

David initiated an international collaboration between Craftiness and RaisinLike on Etsy. David provided two partially finished pen barrels to RaisinLike in Israel. Sharona from RaisinLike created art on the barrels and sent them back to David to finish making into pens. The result is a beautiful pair of pens, one for David and one for Sharona. Sharona drew a bear on one and signed it in Hebrew. The other pen has a dove with an olive branch in its beak and says "Etsy Peace" in Hebrew.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Craftiness will be at St. Johns Episcopal Church for their annual craft venue. This was Davids first craft fair so it is quite nostalgic for us. Miss Snappy will also be there again this year. Come see some of her fabulous jewelry designs. Craftiness and Miss Snappy are both proud members of TeamEtsyAustin.

Come and visit the local crafters and kick-start your holiday shopping. The event is located at 11201 Parkfield Drive at Braker Lane.

These wine stoppers are perfect for those unfinished bottles of wine. No more trying to shave corks to get those thing back in the bottles, you know what I mean. This beautiful batch is made of Siberian Pea Bush and each one is a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

This is a wine stopper/cork screw combo. The cork screw seats inside the stopper part. Great invention made of ebony wood.

He just finished putting on all the bar codes and is excited about this new venue. He is working hard producing for all the venues he wants to participate in and maintain his Etsy site. This is the busiest time of year for all crafters and exciting at all of the opportunities afforded.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Maker Faire! Day one: "Where do I start?" OK, get your thoughts together, you have only been waiting all year for this (Just missed last year). In case you have been living under a non-crafty rock for two years, perhaps a non-felted one at that, Maker Faire is produced by the creators of two relatively new magazines Makeand Craft. These magazines will document the DIY craft and make movement that has been gaining momentum since the internet became widely accessible. Anthropologists 100 years from now will use this magazine as a text book to chronicle this 'curious movement'. Any-hoo, first on the agenda for Saturday is the bubbly and inspiring Crafty Chica, Kathy Cano-Murillo. If you have ever heard an interview with the Crafty Chica, you know how inspiring she can be. If you ever dreamed of making crafty goodness as a living, start with her. She chronicled her start and her path in such a short time. Her crafty wares can be found at Michaels craft stores. You can also listen to an interview of her with Vickie Howell on her podcast CRL, Craft Rock Love. Next up, the lovely Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club. Ms. Perkins is a founding member of Austin Craft Mafia, an author and craft show host for Craft Lab and Styleicious. She also gives crafty business classes at Autin Craft-O-Rama.

There was so much to see and experience that I had to come back on Sunday. I still didn't see everything there was. It was a gluttony of creativeness and inspiring ingenuity. The robot wars were incredible! Basically a fight to the death with radio controlled robots. There were spinning blades, fire breathing robots and levers that flipped the other robots over in an attempt to disable them. This was a large contest of which I don't really know the extent of. I believe it's an elimination contest with possible big money prizes, not sure, anyone? The fire-breathing robot in this pic is called 'Texas Heat'. He received a lot of applause. Mouse Trapwas the brain child of Mark Perez. 15 Years worth of hard work and this masterpiece is spectacular! I had to watch two shows, it was that good**

Under The Licorice Tree deserves special attention since it held the attention of my DD and her girl scout mate for several hours. I couldn't believe it, needle felting for 12 year olds. they couldn't stop stab-stab-stabbing.... even while they were playing on the oversized teete-totter:P

Needle felting involves wool, a barbed felting needle and a cusion to protect your lovely furniture from becoming swiss cheese. The possibilities are absolutely limited to your imagination. Here there is a human-like rabbit on a bicycle and a zombie with branches for arms. How creative is that? I have tried to tap into my inner creative self and asked a few artists at the maker faire how they found their inner artistic selves. Apparently it's there in all of us, we just need to look for it. I haven't found it yet, I just craft from patterns but to truly create from your imagination, well, that's what it's all about.

Trina Brielle taught how to turn plastic grocery bags into 'Plarn' for crocheting and knitting. This really enthralled my recycling earth friendly girl scout. She was especially interested since she just learned how to knit at the Faire.

R2D2 made an appearance, he made the crowd part like moses did with water.Steve Wolf with Science in the movies explained how 5th grade science helps make special effects for movies.

Robo Spin Art include pumps that reminded me of IV pumps I work with in a hospital, ink and centrifugal force. Why can't I come up with this stuff? Hmm..... Need to work on that imagination thing.

David and I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Millie and her mom, the Etsy Texas Crafters Gurus. These ladies spend their valuable time promoting Texas Etsians. They actually recognized me as Davids wife because of the T-Shirt I was wearning with 'Craftiness.Etsy.com' emblazoned with all the color and glitter I could come up with.